{"id":9158,"date":"2026-09-17T20:00:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/?p=9158"},"modified":"2026-09-17T18:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T17:08:52","slug":"monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-netflix-bridget-sullivan-romance-theory-sexuality-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2026\/09\/17\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-netflix-bridget-sullivan-romance-theory-sexuality-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Lizzie Borden sleeping with Bridget Sullivan? The wild theory Monster treats as fact"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We all know Ryan Murphy adheres to the \u2018print the legend\u2019 school of thought when it comes to his true crime anthology series, and it\u2019s no different with Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. Just look at the portrayal of Lizzie\u2019s relationship with the family\u2019s maid, Bridget Sullivan.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fourth installment of the Netflix show has landed, following on from Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menendez brothers and Ed Gein. Now, Monster is turning its attention to its first female subject in a case that\u2019s so famous, it\u2019s got its own nursery rhyme\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cLizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rhyme is, for the most part, inaccurate, but it gives you an idea. Nearly 135 years ago, Lizzie\u2019s father and stepmother (not her mother), Andrew and Abby Borden, were brutally killed at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, with a hatchet (not an axe).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suspicion soon fell on Lizzie, who was at home around the time of the murders and gave conflicting accounts of her movements. She was eventually charged and tried for both killings, but with no evidence conclusively linking her to the crime, she was acquitted &#8211; and no one else was ever charged.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story | Official Trailer | Netflix\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gYTzF1vna40?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While this crime is at the centre of Monster, with Ella Beatty taking on the titular role, the case has been given a Murphy makeover by making her relationship with Bridget \u201cMaggie\u201d Sullivan (Vicky Krieps) &#8211; the Bordens\u2019 live-in maid &#8211; a major part of the plot.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen the repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid find themselves trapped in a house built on humiliation and cruelty, they escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge,\u201d the synopsis reads.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With that in mind, you\u2019re no doubt wondering how true to life their relationship is.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Was Lizzie Borden sleeping with Bridget Sullivan?<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9165\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9165\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9165\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-later.jpg\" alt=\"The real Lizzie Borden\" width=\"1200\" height=\"631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-later.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-later-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-later-768x404.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9165\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: 48 Hours\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite what we see in Monster, there\u2019s no historical evidence proving Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan were in a sexual relationship. The theory has been around for decades, but it\u2019s essentially speculation that has become part of the Lizzie Borden legend over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In reality, Bridget &#8211; who Lizzie and her sister Emma called \u201cMaggie\u201d &#8211; was a 26-year-old Irish immigrant who had worked as the Borden family\u2019s live-in maid for nearly three years by the time of the murders. While her trial <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/famous-trials.com\/lizzieborden\/1460-sullivantestimony\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">testimony<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> gives us plenty of detail about life inside the house, nothing suggests she and Lizzie were lovers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for where the affair theory originated, one of the biggest sources came nearly 100 years later thanks to author Evan Hunter &#8211; better known by his pen name Ed McBain &#8211; who depicted Lizzie and Bridget as lovers in his fictional 1984 novel Lizzie.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The story sees Lizzie killing her parents after they find out about her relationship with Bridget. Although this was entirely made up, Hunter later explained that his theory was partly inspired by reports about Lizzie\u2019s later friendship &#8211; and rumoured romance &#8211; with actress Nance O\u2019Neil.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that was his interpretation of events, rather than evidence that anything sexual happened between Lizzie and Bridget in the 1890s.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Author Sarah Miller &#8211; who wrote the 2016 nonfiction book The Borden Murders &#8211; is blunt when it comes to the claims. On the theory that Lizzie Borden was a lesbian and she murdered her parents because they discovered her secret, Miller said it\u2019s \u201cunsubstantiated\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis theory relies almost entirely on stereotype and innuendo,\u201d Miller <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalelement.com\/11-facts-about-lizzie-borden-debunked-sarah-miller-murders-trial-of-the-century-forty-whacks\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wrote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, before listing where it\u2019s derived from, starting with the fact that Lizzie never married. If there were any suitors, men or women, their names are lost to history.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In short, Lizzie and Bridget could technically have had a relationship nobody knew about. But there\u2019s a pretty significant difference between something being possible and there being evidence it actually happened.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What do we actually know about Lizzie Borden\u2019s sexuality?<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9162\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9162\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9162\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan.jpg\" alt=\"The real Bridget Sullivan\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-768x769.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9162\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Real Stories\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not a great deal. As said, Lizzie never got married, and there has been speculation for decades that she was attracted to women, but historians have no definitive evidence that allows us to confidently label her sexuality more than a century later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lot of that speculation centres not on Bridget, but on actress Nance O\u2019Neil &#8211; played by Jessica Barden in the Netflix series.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nance was a hugely successful stage actress, and Lizzie &#8211; who loved the theatre &#8211; became fascinated by her performances before the two women became friends in around 1904.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their friendship was public enough to attract gossip at the time, and Lizzie entertained Nance and members of her theatre company at her home. It also coincided with Lizzie\u2019s estrangement from her sister Emma, who moved out of their home in 1905 and never returned.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Miller wrote that this combination of incidents is what fuelled theories that Lizzie and Nance were more than just friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But again, there\u2019s no proof of a sexual relationship. On June 10, 1927, shortly after Lizzie died, Nance spoke with the New Bedford Standard, with the report describing the women as friends.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nance explained they had lost touch after she left the area, saying, \u201cI am afraid I am a rather poor correspondent\u2026 We were like ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Was Bridget Sullivan suspected of being involved in the murders?<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9166\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9166\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5-5.jpg\" alt=\"Lizzie and Bridget in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5-5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5-5-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/5-5-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Bridget was questioned extensively and has been featured in later theories about the murders, she was never charged as her accomplice &#8211; in fact, she was an important prosecution witness.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bridget was one of very few people known to be on the property that morning. She testified that she had been washing windows before Andrew returned home. She let him in and continued cleaning before going upstairs to rest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shortly after that, she said she heard Lizzie calling her downstairs because her father had been killed. Bridget\u2019s testimony was important for the prosecution as she placed Lizzie at home at the time of the killings and claimed she hadn\u2019t seen anyone else there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That said, some of her testimony actually helped with Lizzie\u2019s defence. The prosecution were attempting to establish Lizzie had a troubled relationship with her stepmother, but Bridget said they interacted \u201cvery civilly\u201d and she never saw any \u201cquarreling\u201d.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She also provided one of the most intriguing details about the aftermath. After Andrew&#8217;s body was discovered, Bridget said, \u201cI did not see any blood on her. Not on her face or hands, or anywhere. As far as I can remember, her hair was in order.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9163\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9163\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9163\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-5.jpg\" alt=\"The real Andrew and Abby Borden\" width=\"1200\" height=\"718\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-5-1024x613.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monster-the-lizzie-borden-story-was-she-in-relationship-with-bridget-sullivan-5-768x460.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9163\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Real Stories\/YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, none of this stopped speculation about Bridget in the years that followed. Some have suggested she helped Lizzie or covered up what she knew, while others have suggested that Bridget herself was the killer.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Author Len Rebello\u2019s 1999 book Lizzie Borden: Past &amp; Present records a theory by Mary D. Smith, originally published in The Armchair Detective in 1978, which proposed that Lizzie and Bridget were \u201cpartners in crime\u201d. And Hunter&#8217;s later novel similarly turned Bridget into Lizzie\u2019s lover and accomplice.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, none of this proves that the real Bridget was involved in any way. And there could be a far less scandalous reason why she portrayed the life inside the Borden household as so harmonious when it clearly wasn\u2019t.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When asked why Bridget would lie if she\u2019s not involved in the crime, Killing the Bordens author C. Cree told <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/culture\/story\/lizzie-borden-parents-murder-other-suspects\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vanity Fair<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recently, \u201cBecause she was a live-in domestic servant and she wanted to continue to get work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>But why does Monster make Lizzie and Bridget lovers?<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_9167\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9167\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9167\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6-2.jpg\" alt=\"Lizzie and Bridget in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6-2-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6-2-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Credit: Netflix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Essentially, the creators of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story felt the theory was simply too interesting to leave out of the Netflix series.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speaking to Vanity Fair, Monster co-creator Ian Brennan said, \u201cThere\u2019s some adage &#8211; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.\u201d The outlet specifically referenced Hunter\u2019s 1984 novel, in which Lizzie and Bridget are lovers whose relationship is discovered by Abby.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt just screams Boston marriage to me and it seemed too rich to ignore,\u201d Brennan added. \u201cI felt like we were ethically and morally excused to take that for granted. I think it\u2019s one of the smaller leaps that we take in the show.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But the relationship also serves a much bigger purpose within the show. Lizzie is someone who\u2019s been intensely sheltered and repressed, and so meeting someone with Bridget\u2019s more modern outlook is liberating for her.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Brennan told <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/1288921\/monster-lizzie-borden-story-netflix-fall-preview\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TV Insider<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cBridget is really a catalyst. She\u2019s like a foreign object that gets introduced to this ecosystem, and completely turns it on its head. I think Lizzie\u2019s just completely perplexed [by Bridget] at first. She becomes, very quickly, an object of deep fascination and then desire.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FilmShrine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">like our Facebook page<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image credit: Public Domain\/Netflix\/Real Stories\/YouTube<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Their relationship has been given a classic Monster spin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[398,12,15,48,11],"coauthors":[17],"class_list":["post-9158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained","tag-monster","tag-netflix","tag-now-showing","tag-ryan-murphy","tag-tv"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.4 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Was Lizzie Borden sleeping with Bridget Sullivan? 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